The present invention relates to devices used for providing music for a telephone caller placed on "hold".
Many telephone subscribers, and particularly business establishments having multiple telephone lines answered by a single operator, must place calling parties on "hold" at one time or another. Some of these telephone subscribers provide music on the telephone line so that a customer placed on "hold" will know that he is still on line and perhaps not feel that he has been abandoned by the called party.
Music on hold is provided by various types of apparatus. One arrangement plays a pre-recorded audio tape continuously. When a calling party is placed on hold, the telephone line is automatically switched to an output of the tape system so that the tape plays directly into the phone line. A similar system couples a received radio signal or commercial music service signal onto the telephone line. Other known music on hold apparatus use a device intended to sit near the telephone. These devices include a cradle in which the telephone handset is placed when a calling party is to be put on hold. There is no direct electrical connection between the telephone line and the music device. Rather, the music device provides an audio signal that coupled into the mouthpiece portion of the handset when the handset is placed in the cradle. Generally such devices are spring actuated when the handset is placed in the cradle. These devices can produce music mechanically, such as with a spring driven music box or electronically through a speaker. The electronic devices require a power source.
Known systems being quite complex, bulky and expensive, are generally used only by large commercial establishments. They are considered impractical for residential use. To date, there is no known telephone music device that is simple and inexpensive enough for residential use and that is adaptable for easy connection to telephones not having a push-button hold switching system.